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General information

The Peripheral Component Interconnect, or PCI Standard (in practice almost always shortened to PCI), specifies a computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard. These devices can take any one of the following forms:

An integrated circuit fitted onto the motherboard itself, called a planar device in the PCI specification.

An expansion card that fits into a socket.

The PCI bus is common in modern PCs, where it has displaced ISA and VESA Local Bus as the standard expansion bus, but it also appears in many other computer types. The bus is being succeeded by PCI Express, which launched in 2004 and offers much higher bandwidth. As of 2007 the PCI standard is still used by many legacy and new devices that do not require the higher bandwidth of PCI-E. New computers are also still provided with ample PCI slots.

The PCI specification covers the physical size of the bus (including wire spacing), electrical characteristics, bus timing, and protocols. The specification can be purchased from the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG).

Origin 3x0/3x00 PCI Carrier

The PCI Card Carrier is used with Origin 3x0/3x00 expansion bricks such as the I-Brick, IX-Brick, or P-Brick. Its places the edge-connector of PCI boards into or out of a PCI slot as the carrier is inserted/retracted. When controlled by the correct software, it allows for hot-swapping PCI cards.

Shoehorn

Single PCI slot <-> XIO

PCI Shoehorns for the Origin 2000 / Octane adapt single PCI boards for use in an XIO slot:

Shoebox

3 PCI slots into a XIO bridge.

The Origin 2000 and Oynx2 ones are straight up and down with the screws on the bottom.

The Octane ones are sideways with the screws on one side.

The orientation of the compression connectors are also incompatible between the two shoeboxes.